Kelsea Ballerini wrote 'Legends' from a place of 'bitterness' but is now the 'happiest' she's ever been

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Kelsea Ballerini talks new single 'Legends'

Fox411 Country: Kelsea Ballerini discusses weddings plans, new music

NEW YORK – Kelsea Ballerini's life has changed a lot since she sat down to write her new single "Legends" about a break up.

For starters, the 23-year-old is now engaged to fellow country singer Morgan Evans.

"When I wrote ['Legends'], it was in a break up. It was in this period of my life where I had so much bitterness," Ballerini told Fox News. "It was a really healing song for me at the time."

Now when Ballerini hits the stage to perform her hit single, she sings it from a place of love.

"When we were picking it as a single I thought, 'Hey, is this something that you still relate to that you can sing and still have truth in it?'" she asked herself at the time.

But the more she listened to it, the more she realized "it's really a love song."

"I'm truly just the happiest I've ever been," she told us.

Ballerini said her new music also represents the changes the singer has gone through since first moving to Nashville at 19.

"I wrote my first record when I was 19-years-old [and] I put it out when I was 21, and I'm 23 now," she shared ahead of her Colgate Optic White show in New York City. "So I just feel like being able to finally put out music that is who I am right now, is really fun for me because I've just changed a lot, I've grown up a little bit and I just have a different perspective on life."

Looking back at her career, the Knoxville native said she's glad she had no clue what she was getting herself into when she was first starting out.

"I think there's such a beauty in being naive," she said. "I think when you're naive, you don't know what you can't do so you think you can do everything."

Ballerini said her "biggest gift...going into this whole journey was I had no idea what I was doing.

She admitted, "I have been winging it."

Ballerini said her faith and family have kept her grounded through this process.

"I think that the beautiful thing about country music is everyone is kind of brought up the same way and so growing up...on a farm, growing up going to church every Sunday and then having a big meal with my family afterwards," she shared. "All of those things made me a country songwriter a country singer. I think 90 percent of country artists are raised the same way and I think that's part of what makes country music, country music."